Mutual Pining
by mydarlingl0ve
Summary: Sakura gets what she's always wanted, and what she didn't know she needed


"What did you say?" Sakura growled at the raven haired man in front of her, who didn't look phased at all. He stood there, a passive look on his face as she stared at him. Her anger was radiating off of her like heat off a sidewalk in the middle of summer. All she wanted was for Sasuke to be actively part of Sarada's life. But no. He chose to leave them.

"I'm not coming back." He repeated. "Here." He pulled a scroll out from his cloak and handed it to her wordlessly before turning and vanishing into thin air.

Sakura rolled her eyes and put the scroll into her bag and walked away, holding Sarada tightly against her chest.

"It'll be okay, baby." She cooed with a small smile. "I'll find you an ever better papa. Who will be there for us."

Even though Sakura was smiling for her young daughter, she was holding back tears. She knew what the scroll was. She's been asking for it for months. It's the divorce she's been waiting for.

After leaving Sarada with her parents, Sakura headed up to the hokage tower to fill out the paperwork, scroll in hand.

As soon as she opened the door, she was greeted with the smell of warm tea and strawberry mochi. She smiled as she closed the door behind her, causing the silver haired hokage to look up from the paperwork he was working on.

"Sakura," He gave her is signature eye smile before he nodded at the chair in front of his desk. "please sit."

Sakura nodded and sat in front of his desk. Before she could pull the scroll out, Kakashi silently poured her tea and set it in front of her.

"Thank you," she whispered softly before taking a sip.

"You're welcome." He smiled under his mask for a moment before he got down to business.

"I know this is hard for you, Sakura." He began after clearing his throat. "How's Sarada?"

"She's alright. He never spent much time with her anyway. She doesn't seem to notice he's gone." Sakura sighed to herself as she set the cup down.

"I'm- sorry, Sakura. I know how-"

"Please, Kakashi. You don't have to." She interrupted. "I'm okay, really. I already signed everything." She held out the scroll for him to sign so her divorce was complete.

"Ahh. Alright." He stammered briefly before taking the scroll from her and quickly skimming it over before signing at the bottom. He noticed that she had written "Haruno Sakura. No longer an Uchiha" under the dotted line. The sight both warmed him and worried him. Was she really handling this okay?

"Thank you for the tea, Kakashi." She smiled as she rose from the chair to leave.

"Wait," He said without thinking, grabbing her wrist.

Sakura's eyes widened for a moment before she smiled at him again. "Honestly, I'm okay. I'm back in my old apartment and Ino helped me renovate the office into a nursery for Sarada. Everything is going well."

Kakashi's fingers tightened around her wrist before caressing the skin softly. "I believe you. You're a strong woman, Sakura." He smiled as he slowly released her wrist, taking note of the light pink that dusted Sakura's cheeks.

"Would you like to see Sarada?" Sakura blurted out suddenly, wondering why she's just asked that.

"I'd love to meet her." Internally, Kakashi was overjoyed that he was meeting the daughter of the woman he secretly adored. "How does dinner sound? I'll stop by around seven, is that okay?"

Sakura's eyes widened slightly before she looked away, blushing harder. "Yeah," She mumbled before slowly turning on her heel and walking out of his office, Kakashi chuckled to himself when she looked back and saw him still looking at her.

The moment the door closed, Kakashi slouched back into his chair and pulled his mask down, taking a deep breath.

"She's cute when she blushes." He mumbled to himself before shaking his head and pulling his mask back up.

"Focus, Hatake. You still have work to do." He chided himself before diving back into his work with Sakura's blushing face still fresh in his mind.

Sakura was setting the table when she heard a knock on the door. She quickly looked at the clock and gasped when she noticed what time it was.

"He's on time?" She whispered in awe as she quickly picked up Sarada from the mat and answered the door.

"You're on time." She smiled, clearly still flustered.

"I am," Kakashi chuckled as he looked at Sarada nestled in her arms.

"Come in! I just finished setting the table." Sakura stepped out of the way and closed the door behind them.

"Hello there, Sarada." Kakashi pulled his mask down and smiled at the little girl, who in turn giggled and reached out for him.

"Papa!" The little girl smiled, clenching and unclenching her tiny hands in Kakashi's direction.

Kakashi froze. He didn't even breathe. His smile gone from his face as he stared at the little girl who was still reaching out for him. Almost mechanically, he took Sarada from Sakura's loose hold and gently set her on the mat. As soon as he was in front of Sakura again, he saw that she had been silently crying.

"Sakura, I-"

"N-no. It's okay. It's just that," She paused as she turned to look at Sarada, who was holding a toy rabbit Ino had given her. "that was her first word."

"Oh," Kakashi's eyes widened as he realized what had happened. "Does that mean she thinks I'm…"

"I-I don't know." She crossed her arms and sighed.

"Do you want me to leave?" He offered, feeling like he was intruding on a family moment.

"What? No, of course not." She let her arms fall before she looked up at him questioningly. "Don't think this is weird, but," she mumbled before she took two steps forward and leaned her forehead against his shoulder.

Kakashi's body went stiff before relaxing and tentatively reached up and rubbed small circles on her back, giving her the comfort she needed.

"Papa!" Sarada giggled again, holding out the rabbit for Kakashi.

Kakashi felt Sakura flinch ever so slightly before she pulled away with a small smile.

"You can go along with it, if you want." She sighed before taking the bag of food from Kakashi.

"Are you sure? I don't want to confuse her." He unintentionally let his nervousness slip into his tone, causing Sakura to chuckle.

"It's okay. She needs a father figure anyway. I wouldn't mind if it was you." She smiled before walking into the kitchen, leaving Kakashi standing there, mouth slightly agape.

"Papa?" Sarada called out again, tears in her eyes.

Kakashi was immediately snapped out of his thoughts as he turned to face the girl.

"Hi, Sarada." He smiled as he sat on the floor in front of her. Sarada immediately crawled into his lap, stood on his thighs, and wrapped her small arms around his neck.

Kakashi felt the air leave his lungs as she hugged him. He heard Sakura stifle a sob from the kitchen and stood up, wrapping an arm around Sarada's back.

"Sakura?" He was standing beside her and noticed that she what she was looking at. It was a photo of Kakashi, but something was different about him. Sakura looked through the small stack of photos and gasped softly when she came to the last one. It was a picture of her and Kakashi from her wedding to Sasuke.

Kakashi felt a blush creeping across his face as he looked at the photo. The way he was looking at her was not the way a former sensei was supposed to look at his former student on her wedding day, but there he was, looking down at Sakura as if she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. Sakura was smiling bashfully at the photo before she held it up for him.

"It sorta looks like I married you instead of Sasuke." She giggled.

Kakashi's heart was beating so fast he was surprised Sarada wasn't saying anything. She had let go of his neck and was sitting on his hip when she looked at the picture and smiled again.

"Mama and papa!" She giggled as she reached for the photo.

"Why does she keep doing that?" Sakura laughed before taking Sarada from Kakashi. "I'm going to put her to bed."

"Yeah," He mumbled as she walked passed him and down the hall.

"Like you married me instead of Sasuke, huh?" He looked at he photo and felt his entire body grow warm.

"Maybe someday."

(A/N- to those who are only here to tell me to kill myself or to defend Sasuke, I'm here to tell y'all that you're barking up the wrong tree lol I absolutely despise Sasuke. Why would I make him a good guy? It's so easy to write him for what he is; a terrible father/husband. If you don't like my ship, don't read it. Don't read anything I upload because I promise you nothing will change. I will always upload KakaSaku and I will always shit talk SasuSaku and Sasuke. You want to talk shit to my face? My ask box on tumblr is always open. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.)


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